Floyd County Auditor Scott Clark

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Special budget meeting

Floyd County officials are considering layoffs as they craft a budget for next year amid forecasts of a $3.5 million shortfall caused, in part, by David Camm’s third murder trial.

Camm’s trial — which has cost the county more than $1 million this year — has largely depleted reserves, officials said, while property-tax revenue have declined and a project to convert the former Pine View Elementary School into a youth shelter and government center has strained resources.

The county council could approve the 2014 county budget ordinance during a special budget meeting Thursday evening.

County auditor Scott Clark said the latest 2014 budget proposal shows $12 million in county expenses for next year, while the county’s anticipated property-tax revenue is $8.5 million.

“That’s the biggest hurdle,” he said.

Councilman Jim Wathen, a retired financial adviser who took office in January, said he has no doubt some layoffs will be needed to help make ends meet, but he wouldn’t speculate how many jobs will need to be cut.

The county has 395 full- and part-time employees, whose salaries and benefits make up about 42 percent of the county budget, Clark said.

Wathen said he hopes to solve the budget problems without having to take out a loan that would be paid back with an increase in economic development income taxes, as he said has been suggested by some county leaders.

“I think we’ve taken all the avenues we can as far as not hurting people,” Wathen said. “We’ve cut individual agency budgets. ... I think we’re probably having to look at laying off some people.”

Both he and Clark said everything is on the table, including possible service cuts and furloughs.

Clark replaced former Auditor Darin Coddington in April. He resigned after council leaders revealed that the state had not certified the county’s 2013 budget and that the county could face a shortfall exceeding $2 million.

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The council had to rework and resubmit this year’s budget to the state this spring. And council members have continued working, in part by trimming budgets, to avoid a shortfall this year.

Clark said he provides council members with “a forecast of funds that are in peril each month to show them where we have to be to finish the year in the black.”

Besides the more than $1 million that Camm’s trial has cost the county this year a capital murder trial that starts Monday for accused serial killer William Gibson is expected to cost $450,000, he said.

And the project to renovate Pine View cost the county $3.1 million, which Clark said was problematic because the county only sought $1.5 million in bond proceeds, meaning another $1.6 million had to be used from “rainy day” and other county funds.

Meanwhile, Floyd County’s tax base has gotten smaller as New Albany has grown through recent annexations. County leaders expect the tax base to get even smaller next year with the city’s annexation of part of Charlestown Road, including Meijer.

And assessed property values have dropped, Wathen said, making it an even “smaller pie.”